Wow, this is my first fanfic in a really, REALLY long time, and it's my first YJ one, so I'm just getting back in the swing of things right now.

This is the first part of my piece for DickBabs Execute week. You should totally check it out on Tumblr if you haven't already!

The prompt for the first day/chapter was beginnings, so since this is YJ, I thought I'd right about Babs's beginning's with the team.

I know I don't own Young Justice, cuz if I did, I would never have gotten rid of fingerstripes.

Enjoy!

~~~BB~~~

Chapter One: Beginnings

~~~BB~~~

"GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE TWERP!"

Artemis and Bette didn't even turn around as a blob of red flew by following a much shorter and faster dash of black. Bette even held out her car keys so that the little black haired boy would have a place to hide. It was the last day of school and Artemis's last day as a junior. Bette had offered her a ride home, a much better option than taking the city bus to the much sketchier part of Gotham where she lived. Still, the neighborhood wasn't as bad as it used to be ever since Gotham's newest vigilante had appeared around Christmastime.

In the days between Christmas and New Year's, sightings began being called in of the Batman, except shorter, and ginger, and, well, with boobs. Like the Batman and Robin before her, no actual sightings of the crime-fighting Batman fangirl could be confirmed, and no pictures existed. Before Artemis had the chance to say anything to Batman or Robin, there weren't any more sightings. The archer simply assumed that the poor girl had bitten off more than she could chew whether it was in the form of a Gotham baddie or the Dark Knight himself. Either way, she was off the streets for months.

Then in late February/early March, she reappeared, but this time, she was not only better equipped and better trained, but was seen working with Batman and Robin. Artemis tried to approach Robin about it, but he just brushed her off with the usual "Batfam things, top secret and all that. If I say anything I'll have to sic the Batcow on you!" Artemis didn't really want to delve into the twisted mess that was the Boy Sicko's mind, so she just dropped it and began doing her own tracking of the newest cape in Gotham. That is, whenever she wasn't patrolling in Star City, or out with the team, or doing homework, or hanging with Wally, or seeing her other friends. She was lucky if she got in one night of detective work a month.

Tonight was not that night however, as the team had a bonding movie night following their weekly group training. She was heading to the mountain as soon as Bette dropped her off, but first it seemed like she had to deal with two of her best friends in school who also happened to be the two most oblivious people in school.

"Dick! If you don't give it back right now I'm gonna send that picture I found of you on Bruce's computer to all of your friends."

Artemis and Bette walked into the parking lot to the sight of an angry Barbara Gordon, her face as red as her hair, glaring into Bette's passenger door window. What had previously been and elated Dick Grayson holding his best friend's backpack hostage had quickly turned into a scared ghost trapped behind the glass. Once the boy had processed what exactly his friend had threatened, the door practically flew open and the bag was shoved into the redhead's hands so hard she was pushed onto the ground with Dick landing on top of her.

Artemis and Bette started laughing as the awkward not-quite-a-couple tried to untangle themselves while blustering apologies and trying to keep their hands from getting too close to certain areas.

"I think Babs wants the D," Bette whispered to the other blonde causing the two girls to collapse on the ground in laughter. They refused to tell the two why they were in hysterics and instead made them wait until they were able to pic themselves off the ground and walk over to Bette's car.

"So, now that you two are done getting busy in the parking lot," Bette drawled as she reached her convertible, ignoring the cries of protest coming from her friends. "Are you coming over for my annual last day of school bash? This one here's blowing me off again."

"Again?" Babs asked, a calculating look on her face. "Gee, Artemis, school's over. What could you possibly be doing now that your study group is over?" Babs gave a pointed look in Dick's direction who had suddenly found a very interesting rock on the ground that took over his interest.

"Well," Artemis drug out, looking suspiciously at the two, while furiously thinking of a decent excuse. Did they know something? "Umm, we're meeting one last time to, um, say bye and, um, compare grades and, um, stuff." By the time she finished her not very convincing lie, Babs looked triumphant and Dick looked like he was mentally face palming. Something was definitely up.

"I can't either, Bette," Dick said. "I'm heading out to catch up with the circus for a few days to see all the old faces and stuff, it's a belated birthday gift from Bruce, but I'm sure Babs would love to go." He put on his billionaire smile. Artemis was was thankful that Babs didn't have heat vision, because if she did, Dick was a goner if the glare the red head was giving was any indication.

"I can't actually. My dad got off work tonight, for once, so just me and him are hanging out to celebrate the start of summer," Babs said with a small, obviously fake, frown. Before Dick could correct her, she grabbed his arm and started heading to the car that had just pulled into the parking lot. "That's Alfred! I guess we'll see you guys soon!"

Babs waved at the two girls and drug a squirming Dick behind her as she greeted Alfred and climbed in the backseat. After they drove away, Bette climbed into her car and started putting the top down.

"I swear, it's like you're all living two lives, I never see any of you!"

Artemis paused as she swung her backpack in the backseat, the gears in her head starting to turn.

"Yea…" Artemis laughed awkwardly, jumping in next to Bette. "It's weird right?"

Too weird….

~~~BB~~~

"What the hell was that?" Dick asked when they got to the manor, stopping in the middle of the garage. Babs sidestepped him and continued walking on her way to Bruce's study.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Dick grabbed his bag and sprinted to catch up with her. "Could it be that you're going out with your team again and I'm still stuck here in Gotham?"

"Babs," Dick sighed as they reached the grandfather clock. "There's nothing I can do about it. You know how Bruce is he –"

"He's being ridiculous and overprotective and needs to realize that he's got to introduce me to the rest of the crime fighting community eventually, especially the teen ones. I don't know how there aren't more reports of me outside of Gotham."

They had opened the clock and were walking down the hidden staircase to the cavern below. To say that the cave was astounding would be an understatement. From the giant penny and the T-rex, to the bat-computer and the training simulators, the room was the base of operations for one of the best superheroes in the world. Most people would have been struck speechless at the mere sight of it, however the two teenagers had become so used to it, they weren't phased in the slightest, not even when their mentor appeared out of nowhere behind them.

"That's because no one believes in the Batman and his partners." Bruce said, wearing a normal suit and walking with his two protégés to get changed into something a little more appropriate. "There's a reason that we don't let ourselves be seen, it adds to the mystery, and makes us seem more powerful than we really are."

At this both Dick and Babs shot disbelieving looks at each other. After all, this was the man who could singlehandedly take down the entire justice league if he deemed it necessary. Bruce decided to act as if he didn't see their exchange.

"However you are right." Dick and Babs both jumped in surprise. That's not exactly a phrase that comes out of the Batman's mouth very often. "It's important to build allies and be able of working in a larger team and on larger scale missions. You have one more test, and then you can be introduced to the team."

"Really?" Babs said, smiling one of her brightest smiles ever. Dick stood slack-jawed beside her. He couldn't believe Bruce was going so soft. Yea Babs was great, but was it too much to say that he didn't want to share her with the rest of his friends? Especially Wally. The speedster would never believe that Batgirl and Robin weren't dating. As if! That wouldn't happen in a million years. And Wally suggesting it would certainly make his recently broken relationship with Zatanna even worse.

"Yes," Bruce offered one of his sparse smiles as he reached for his cape and cowl. "You've come a long way since you started out on your own and I think you're ready for this. There's just one more thing you have to do."

"Anything," Babs said, holding her uniform pieces in her hand, ready to spring into action as soon as her mentor said the word.

"Find the Gotham Zeta Tube," Bruce smirked. "I'm sure Robin would be happy to help." The man nodded to the now enthusiastically grinning Dick and turned into one of the changing rooms.

"I'm screwed aren't I?" Babs frowned as she turned in the Boy Wonder's direction only to find him in his changing room already, cackling his maniacal laugh.

"Shit," Babs cursed as she darted for the third stall. "I'm so not feeling the aster."

~~~BB~~~

Barbara ended up making pretty good time and was able to get on all of her pieces only a few seconds after Robin had finished. After it was clear that she was the only person still in the cave, Babs ran into the garage section, grabbed her helmet and drove out on her brand new Batgirl bike.

Luckily, Barbara was a certifiable genius and was able to hack into the bat-computer's mainframe in order to get a lock on the location of Robin's bike. He appeared to be heading towards one of the nastier parts of Gotham. It made sense when you thought about it. After all, the Gotham crime fighting gang spent most of their after dark hours in that section of town.

Batgirl wove her bike in and out of traffic, following the signal on her wrist computer until she ended up in an alley, Robin's motorcycle abandoned at the end of the street. There were no signs of foul play, so Batgirl began settling into a fighting stance, her eyes searching the shadows on the rooftops, knowing that that was where the attack would come from.

With a quick cackle to give up his location at the last second, Robin launched himself towards her in a blur of red, black, and yellow. Barbara countered every one of Robin's kicks, punches, and acrobatic tricks perfectly as well as parrying with a few of her own. Just as she was about to land a nice, hard tap on the Boy Wonder's skull, he slipped out from under her and melted into the shadows like the bat that he was. Batgirl had thought she had mastered that technique, but apparently not.

"Now, how were you expecting to find out were the Zeta Tube is if you knocked me out?" Robin cackled once more as his voice got more distant, higher. Batgirl fired a grappling line to the roof and began to follow the disembodied voice. "That's more like it! Come on, let's play tag!"

They raced through the streets of Gotham in a way that only they could. Robin was capable of maintaining a significant lead, no matter how hard Batgirl tried to change it. The costumed heroine realized she was never going to catch him, but he wasn't the only cape in town who could give away the transporter's location.

Eventually, Robin noticed that Batgirl wasn't following him anymore and assumed that he had managed to lose her. He smiled, both a little happy and a little sad. As much as he wanted to keep his friend to himself, Dick knew how important joining the team was for Barbara and was sad that she would have to wait even longer.

Robin raced around the Gotham rooftops for about ten more minutes to make sure that Batgirl wasn't following him anymore. When he determined that the coast was clear, he made his way to the old abandoned phone booth and zetaed over to the cave.

As Robin exited the zeta tube and into the cave, ridiculous laughter echoed throughout the mountain and Robin was met with one of the most surprising scenes of his life.

Standing there, in the middle of the team, was Batgirl looking incredibly triumphant as Robin's friend stood around her, gasping for breaths in between bursts of laughter.

"Wh-what, h-how?" Robin sputtered trying to make sense of the situation. Babs walked towards Robin, smirking. "W-why is everyone laughing?"

"Batman said I had to find the Zeta tube, he didn't say I had to find it through you," Batgirl grinned, enjoying the confusion, shock, and astonishment on her friend's face. "I followed my new best friend who just happened to be in Gotham today visiting her cousin." Batgirl pointed over her shoulder towards Artemis with her thumb. Artemis noticed the exchange and nodded in their direction, enjoying the dumbstruck look on the Boy Wonder's face.

"As for the laughing," Batgirl smiled and brought Robin up to the computer screen where everyone was viewing a very nice picture of him in his original scaly underpants Robin costume. "Well, I promised I'd show everyone didn't I?" Batgirl's grin grew wider as Robin's grew more and more horrified and his face became the same color as her and a certain speedster's hair. As she was basking in his pain, said speedster ran up to her, kissed her on the cheek, and flashed her a wink.

"Welcome to the team, Babe."

And so it Began.

~~~BB~~~

There ya go! It feels really good to write something again!

I'm going to be doing each part of the challenge as different chapters in this story, each on progressing Dick and Babs' relationship as well as advancing the team in the time skip. You guys should hopefully get a new chapter each day if everything goes according to plan!

Check me out on Tumblr if you guys want: Confesionsofamerryprocrastin ator

See everyone tomorrow with At the Gala!

Please review!

~Becca